Access to Knowledge Bulletin — November 2012

by Prasad Krishna — last modified Dec 14, 2012 08:20 AM

This is the third Access to Knowledge newsletter from the CIS team in Delhi! This issue gives a summary of the first Odia Wikipedia education program, workshops organised in Bhubaneswar and Delhi, a meet-up held in Kolkata, hackathons held in Delhi and Hyderabad, and news and media coverage during the month of November.

Beginning from September 1, 2012, Wikimedia Foundation has awarded CIS a two-year grant of upto INR 26,000,000 to support and develop free knowledge in India. The Wikimedia Foundation’s India Program has become the Access to Knowledge (A2K) program of the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS). In this issue we bring you updates from the Kolkata wiki community, the Odia wiki community, a report of a workshop organized exclusively for women in Mumbai, Wikipedia hackathon organised in Delhi and Hyderabad, and the recent news and media coverage. Wikipedians from various communities can request for outreach programs, technical bugs, logistics-merchandize and media, public relations and communications at http://bit.ly/TOcXId.

CIS Office in Delhi

The A2K team consists of three members: Nitika Tandon, Subhashish Panigrahi and Noopur Raval. Shiju Alex left the organisation. November 16 was his last working day.

Education Program

First Odia Wikipedia Education Program to be Rolled Out (by Subhashish Panigrahi, November 30, 2012). The program was initiated at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication in Dhenkanal on November 8, 2012.

Workshops Organised by CIS:

Odia Wikipedia Workshop at AML (Academy of Media Learning, Bhubaneswar, November 10, 2012).
Follow up to Wikipedia Introductory Session (Bharati Vidyapeeth, Delhi, November 19, 2012).
An Odia Wikipedia Workshop at KMBB (KMBB College, Bhubaneswar, November 19, 2012).

Workshop Organised by Wiki Community

Wikipedia Women's Workshop in Mumbai (by Noopur Raval, Vidyalankar Institute of Technology, Wadala, Mumbai, November 4, 2012).

Meetup Organised by CIS

Kolkata: Tasting the Sweetness of Wikipedia! (Kolkata, November 3, 2012).

Hackathon organised by CIS

A Wikipedia Mini-hackathon in Delhi (CIS, New Delhi, November 11, 2012).

Hackathon Participation

Wikipedia Hackathon (organised by BITS, Hyderabad, October 25 – 27, 2012).

News and Media Coverage

‘Some Indian laws could be challenging’ (by Kalyan Subramani, Bangalore Mirror, November 15, 2012)
A Report of the Odia Wikipedia Workshop held in KMBB College of Engineering, Bhubaneswar (Sambad, November 19, 2012).
OdishaDiary conferred prestigious Odisha Youth Inspiration Award 2012 to Odia Wikipedia team (by Pravuprasad Routray, Orissa Diary, November 23, 2012).
વિકિપીડિયા ગુજરાતી માં પણ છે (by Harsh Kothari, Cybersafar, November 28, 2012).

Blog Entry

Typing in Indic Languages from Mobiles made Easy! (by Subhashish Panigrahi, November 19, 2012).

About CIS

CIS was registered as a society in Bangalore in 2008. As an independent, non-profit research organisation, it runs different policy research programmes such as Accessibility, Access to Knowledge, Openness, Internet Governance, and Telecom.

CIS is grateful to its donors, Wikimedia Foundation, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation and the Kusuma Trust which was founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin, for its core funding and support for most of its projects.